The advancements in hardware and software development, and concomitantly the rapid decrease in their cost, has resulted in many premises based features, such as answering machines, caller-ID boxes with memory, and voice-mail. The lack of centralization of such premises based features, however, results in physical and/or economic limits on the related services that may be provided. With answering machines and voice-mail, in order to return a call, typically a user must access the answering machine or voice-mail system, listen to a message to identify each caller, then retrieve the phone number of the caller (or have the number memorized), followed by placing the call. Although caller-ID boxes store the caller's number, regardless of whether the caller intended to leave a message, the stored number may not necessarily be the number of the caller's telephone station, because the number may be associated with a private branch exchange (PBX). Also, the user must still manually dial the calling number, and the caller-ID service is not generally adapted for remote use. When these premises based features and devices are accessed from a remote location, not only must the user know or make note of the caller's number, but also, if the user uses a calling card number to place the call, there is an increased security risk when entering the calling card number at a public phone.
The development of the Intelligent Network, which links computer based elements of the nationwide telecommunication system, has resulted in a proliferation of services to users. Some of these services include toll-free 800 calls, automated call charging to credit cards, and virtual private networks. Network services, however, have historically been based on routing an incoming call to a final destination: voice mail, a paging system, an answering machine, a secretary, etc. There have been no provisions for assisting callback via a network.
Indeed, there has been a recent implementation of a callback feature, wherein a user who fails to respond to an incoming call at a telephone station may dial a code (e.g., "*69"), thereby initiating a callback to the most recent caller. This callback service, however, is typically limited to an intraLATA (Local Access Transfer Area) calling station, and is further limited to calling back the line associated with an ANI (Automatic Number Identification), which is not necessarily associated with the particular telephone station of the calling party. Also, the callback service limits the user to responding to failed calls from the telephone station to which the failed call was placed. Also, the user does not have any features available beyond those for calling back the most recent failed caller.
There remains, therefore, a void in network provided services which facilitate callback. Moreover, there is an increasing importance of communicating with mobile customers, and therefore, providing mobile customers with services not only comparable to services found at a home or office, but also particularly adapted to the needs of a mobile user.